Resilience, Hope and Recovery: Extraordinary Contributions and the People who Create Them
Sabbath Dinner Series at Congregation Beth Ami, 2018-2019
In the past year our community experienced a trauma unlike anything many of us had ever imagined: the loss of more than 5000 homes and 24 lives on the night of October 8 & 9, as fires ravaged the hillsides.
Recovery, on many levels, will take years. How do we move from the trauma to a glimmer of hope to a full recovery? How do the values of our faith and community provide shelter, offer hope, and sustain the long steps toward recovery? The devastating fires have opened our eyes to the work being done every day by members of our community who save lives, feed the hungry, protect the vulnerable, as well as bring laughter and beauty to lighten the load.
In this series, created by Congregation Beth Ami (CBA) members in collaboration with Adult Education at CBA, we explore how members of our community and the values that motivate them, have demonstrated resiliency, created hope and moved not only members of CBA, but the greater community, toward recovery. Are there ways in which Jewish values and experience bring compassion and leadership in recovery? Several of the Friday evening programs will consider how other communities at other times, have coped with disaster.
Join us the first Friday of every month, starting in August 2018, for Shabbat service, community dinner
(no charge) and a program featuring extraordinary contributions to resilience, hope and recovery and the
people in our community who make them. Shabbat is a time to be with family and friends, and this year we particularly are mindful of how the presence of a strong community offers survivors of any disasters stepping stones on the path to normalcy.
Join us for services (6:00pm) and dinner (6:30pm) with program to follow; invite your family and friends. There is no charge for dinner, but you must make a reservation.
April 5: Christyne Davidian: Armenian Genocide
Christyne Davidian is a third generation Armenian Genocide survivor. Her story describes how her relatives escaped death, how they managed to recover, and restart their lives in the United States. Introduction by Carol Swanson, Board member of the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust and Congregation Beth Ami.
This program is generously underwritten by a grant from the Jewish Community Federation’s Wildfire Relief Fund.
